


Talking

by antioedipus



Series: A Different World [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Growing Up, Male-Female Friendship, Nail Polish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25537501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antioedipus/pseuds/antioedipus
Summary: Of all the pathetic things Tenten has seen, and there have been many, this takes the cake.“No, I will not stay in here with you two,” she says. “Sasuke, you live here, and Shikamaru, you need to keep Ino in check.”In which Tenten walks in on Shikamaru lying in a bathtub and Sasuke sitting on the floor, avoiding the party by hiding in the bathroom.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata & Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru & Tenten, Nara Shikamaru/Yamanaka Ino, Sai/Tenten (Naruto), Tenten & Uchiha Sasuke
Series: A Different World [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895671
Comments: 10
Kudos: 86





	Talking

“Swimming in sevens”

Maggie Rogers, “Dog Years”

Sai is beautiful. Like, so pretty it almost hurts. Tenten sometimes doesn’t know why he chose her. She always felt kind of plain, not ugly but not pretty. There isn’t anyone she can talk about this with: her Anbu team is singularly useless when it comes to emotional reassurance, except Sai, but he wouldn’t understand. Neji would sigh and tell her that he thinks she is pretty, and Sasuke would snort and tell her that he has no interest in propping up her self-esteem. _The world has real problems_. Ino and Sakura would fawn over her. Hinata would blink. Lee would probably give her a strange and aimless pep talk, and all the other guys would give some variation of Neji and Sasuke’s responses, but less blunt and to the point.

Tenten sighs, watching Sai sit in Hinata’s kitchen. He is on a kitchen chair, trying to look relaxed and indifferent. Hinata sits beside him, holding his hand and painting his nails a pretty purple color. Lilac. She holds his hand carefully, like it is a baby bird. Ino is showing them different eye shadow colors, and while Sai looks nervous, Tenten can tell that she doesn’t need to intervene yet. Ino and Hinata have taken Sai into their little clique, and while it is sweet to see him being included, she can tell that he is feeling a little overwhelmed by all the attention.

She doesn’t know when or how this happened, but Ino and Hinata chose Sai and Shikamaru and Sasuke chose her. They get invited to all these strange hangouts that devolve into Ino and Hinata babying Sai out of a misplaced sense of care and Sasuke and Shikamaru drinking beer, ignoring each other and only talking to Tenten. She eventually has to rescue Sai, and they spend almost all of the next day lying in bed, talking to no one but each other and Sai’s cat. Last time, Sai spoke into her neck and told her to save him faster next time. But Ino and Hinata always look so happy, and it is hard to say no to them. _That’s probably how they got pregnant_. She has a hard time believing that parenthood was Sasuke or Shikamaru’s idea. Tenten will laugh if their children are as indifferent to each other as their fathers. Hinata and Ino won’t know what to do.

Tenten looks over at Naruto and Kiba, who are arguing over the chips, while Sakura rubs her eyes. Akamaru barks to punctuate Kiba’s points, while Naruto grunts in response. Neither men are particularly gluttonous, but they have a petty rivalry that is easily stoked after a few beers. Tenten wasn’t even paying attention to what they were fighting about. She doesn’t know where Sasuke and Shikamaru ended up, but she figured they were outside or something. Neither really like loud noise. She sighs. _I should find some make-up wipes, then Sai and I can get out of here_. She signals this to Sai, who blinks twice in response.

This evening had started as Team Seven having dinner at Sasuke and Hinata’s place. They are going to be parents in two months, and they want to take advantage of the little time they have left before everything changes. Sai wanted Tenten to come, because they live together now. Hinata told Ino, who decided she and Shikamaru were coming. _It will be like a quadruple date!_ She shrieked. Sasuke replied that was the most obnoxious thing that she had ever said, and Shikamaru seconded it while Ino chewed Sasuke out for being rude.

Tenten looks at Hinata’s swollen stomach, and Ino’s tiny pooch. Sakura asked Tenten how she felt about it. Tenten lied and said that she felt fine. In reality, she felt the opposite. While Sakura and Naruto were in no hurry to commit, Tenten finds herself looking at Sai and thinking about it. She sees how he talks to children and his cat, the way he smiles at the ladies who work at the supermarket and his ability to manage all his difficult emotions. Sakura was surprised that Ino and Hinata wanted to commit like this, and that Shikamaru and Sasuke agreed to it. But Tenten looks at Sai and wishes that he would tell her that they should have a baby. It makes her feel panicky in her chest and her guts shake; this isn’t who she is supposed to be. Tenten is supposed to be career focused, working towards being better than who she was the day before.

But Tenten still finds herself looking at babies differently. Neji caught her the other day and asked why she looked so, in his words, _wistful_. She had frowned and said there was no reason, and he had snorted. _You can have a baby and be in Anbu_ , he replied. Tenten had thrown her iced coffee at him and stalked off while he laughed.

She looked down at her flat tummy this morning, and put her hand over it. Sai caught her, and asked if she felt okay. For a second, she thought about telling him that she wants to have a baby, a little being that is both of them and its own self. Would it be like him, with dark eyes and a pretty smile and a love of cats? She chewed the inside of her cheek while she thought about it. Tenten said she was fine, just a little nauseous. He said they didn’t have to do anything today, but she shook her head, insisting that they needed to go tonight.

So here she is, walking into the bathroom and thinking about Sai’s baby. Tenten turns on the light and jumps when she sees Shikamaru lying in the bathtub, chomping on his nicotine gum and clutching a beer. Sasuke sits on the floor by the bathtub, across from the toilet, also holding a beer, although he more apathetic than Shikamaru.

It’s not what it looks like. Well, it kind of is. Sasuke and Shikamaru took one look around the room and immediately checked out. Shikamaru had climbed into the bathtub, expecting to nap, when the light turned on and Sasuke walked in. They eyed each other, until Shikamaru sighed and told him to sit down. Sasuke pointed out that it was his bathroom, but okay.

They sat in silence for a little bit. Shikamaru doesn’t like working with Sasuke. He always has an attitude. Sasuke thinks Shikamaru is too bossy. Their apathy is mutual. In all honesty, a big part of it is resisting Hinata and Ino’s desire to collapse their lives together. Shikamaru and Sasuke are never going to be best friends, but they are both facing looming fatherhood. Sasuke sips his beer and speaks first.

“Do you think about your dad too?” Sasuke does, all the time. Shikamaru sighs.

“Yes.” He doesn’t know how he could ever compare to his father. When he died, Shikamaru felt fully formed. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye, but he was ready to go on alone. He doesn’t know how he could prepare his child to do the same. It keeps him up at night. Sasuke nods.

“My dad was a hard ass,” Sasuke says, “always focused on the big things, like the clan and policing and Itachi. I didn’t think he loved me.” He still isn’t sure.

“He loved you,” Shikamaru said, “even if it isn’t true, you have to tell yourself that.”

“You think I should lie to myself?” Sasuke asks. Shikamaru shrugs.

“It’s the only way to break the curse of resentment.” Shikamaru adjusts his stretch. He makes a rubbing sound against the tub.

“Do you ever feel like you are supposed to be happier than you are?” Sasuke asks. Shikamaru laughs.

“All the time,” he says on a wheeze, “all the fucking time.” Ino makes looming parenthood look easy. Shikamaru doesn’t doubt her or their baby. He just doubts himself. His readiness, his worthiness. It feels wrong to be a father when Asuma never met Mirai.

“Hinata is so happy,” Sasuke says, “but she has Kurenai. I don’t have any good examples.” Except his dead mom. But Sasuke doesn’t really know how to be a man, and he worries for his son. The Hyuuga and Uchiha are both cursed, in their own ways. Sasuke sighs. Even when he does the right thing, it never feels like enough to make up for who he was.

“You changed,” Shikamaru replies. “I don’t really like you, but you’re different. That’s enough.”

“I want my kid to have more than _enough_ ,” Sasuke replies.

“You had less,” Shikamaru replies, “and look at who you became.”

They sit in silence for a bit. Shikamaru knocks his heel against the tub. “Remember when Naruto told us that we are trapped?” Naruto had been drunk when he said it, but his cackle had hurt. He apologized later, since he was excited to meet both honorary Uzumakis, and let’s be honest, it is Hinata and Ino who are signing away their freedom. _You two are miserable bastards! Ha ha!_

“Is it really a trap if you willingly walk into it?” Sasuke asks. He can only speak for himself, but he had metaphorically sprinted towards Hinata when she told him to but a baby in her. He was caught off guard by his own certainty, for in the past it was usually born out of hate. But Hinata, their baby? Sasuke is certain, from a seemingly bottomless well of love and care, that he wants them. It’s weird to live without doubt and hate. He could get used to it. If this is a trap, he is gladly ensnared.

“I see your point,” Shikamaru replies. He told Ino about it, and she had scoffed at Naruto’s words. _You aren’t trapped and you’re not a miserable_ , she had said. Ino never doubts him. Shikamaru doesn’t know why, because he is far from perfect. _Lazy, apathetic, argumentative_. That’s the shortlist of faults. He isn’t pretty, he has a nasty nicotine addiction and is only slightly peppier than Eeyore. He chews on his gum. Shikamaru asked Ino why she loves him so much, when there are so many _objective_ differences between them. She had snorted and said that _love isn’t objective, Shikamaru; it is all about particularity_. Apparently Sai had told her and Hinata about it in a book he was reading. It had a weird essay that began by explaining how a wolf can’t be a wolf without other wolves, but Sai quoted a specific passage:

“what does it mean to love somebody? It is always to seize the person in a mass, extract him or her from a group, however small, in which he or she participates, whether it be through the family or through something else; then to find that person’s own packs, the multiplicities he or she encloses within himself or herself which may be of an entirely different nature. To join them to mine, to make them penetrate mine, and for me to penetrate the other person’s.”

Ino said she thought it was beautiful and true. She wants to know everything about Shikamaru, no matter what it is, because she loves him all, even the parts that he doesn’t like about himself. _It’s my job_ , she shrugged. Shikamaru had blinked at her, because that was probably the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to him. She filed her nails like she hadn’t just made him feel completely naked and seen. If she weren’t already pregnant, he would have done it then and there.

So he doesn’t know why Ino loves him. He just has to be satisfied that she does. “It’s hard not knowing the reason for something.” Sasuke nods in response.

“I can’t imagine the day I have to tell my kid that for a lot of the big things, there is no reason why. It just is.” Sasuke slumps against the wall. “I want to leave Anbu.”

“Why?” Shikamaru asks. Sasuke shrugs.

“Just for a year. I want to try something else, and I don’t want to be away from Hinata and my kid.” Sasuke knows he can’t quit and stay in Konoha; he wouldn’t be murdering anyone anymore, but he would be relying on someone else to do it for him. There are no moral absolutes or easy answers. But questions of ethics are supposed to be hard, usually devolving into looking for the better decision. He can live with a year. Sasuke wants to see everything: steps and words and crying and laughing. He wants it all, and there will never be enough. It’s scary, how much tenderness he feels for the alien that lives inside of Hinata.

Shikamaru nods. “I get it.”

“You don’t have to,” Sasuke shrugs.

“But I do,” he replies. They sit in silence, and Shikamaru rubs his forehead, wishing his brain would shut off while Sasuke sips his beer and tries to square the fact that who he was at seven, twelve, sixteen and twenty-six are all the same person.

That is what was happening when Tenten walked into the bathroom. They all blink at each other.

Tenten closes the door, and Sasuke decides to fall into their familiar banter.

“Your skirt is short,” Sasuke says, “I can see up it.” Tenten scowls.

“You are such a troll.” She replies, opening the medicine cabinet.

“You are the one snooping,” Sasuke replies. Tenten sighs.

“I’m looking for the make-up wipes.” She says, “Ino and Hinata are painting Sai’s face.”

“He’s pretty,” Shikamaru says.

“A very good canvas,” Sasuke says.

“And he is very obliging.” Shikamaru adds. Tenten turns to them, giving them a look.

“Why are you two finishing each other’s sentences?” she asks. Sasuke and Shikamaru blink at her, clearly expecting her to read their minds. “Are you two going to tell me why you are in here?”

“They are loud.” Shikamaru says. Sasuke nods.

“You realize that two of those _them_ are the mothers of your unborn children, right?” Tenten asks, kneeling to look under the sink. Sasuke sighs and pulls open the drawer, second from the top. The wipes are right there. Tenten smiles and picks them up. She goes to get up, but Sasuke grabs her wrist.

“Can you stay?” he whines. Tenten looks at the two of them.

“This is one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen,” she says.

“Please?” Sasuke asks.

“You are a beacon of sanity,” Shikamaru adds. Tenten snorts.

“No, I will not stay in here with you two,” she says. “Sasuke, you live here, and Shikamaru, you need to keep Ino in check.”

There is a loud crash, accompanied by Kiba swearing and Naruto yelping. They all look at the door, before turning back to each other.

“Don’t make us go out there,” Shikamaru groans, “they are all so _loud_.” He pinches the bridge of his nose.

“No one with an inside voice comes to our parties,” Sasuke sighs.

“What about Sai and I? And Hinata and Sakura?” Tenten crosses her arms. Sasuke rolls his eyes.

“Hinata lives here, so technically it is only three people. And three whole people with inside voices have nothing on Ino, Kiba and Naruto, not to mention Akamaru,” Sasuke says. “At least Lee was busy tonight.”

“Chouji is busy,” Shikamaru says, “and Shino is out of town.”

“Neji laughed in my face when I asked him to come,” Sasuke replies. Tenten sighs, smoothing her skirt.

“You two need to grow up. You are going to be dads soon!” Tenten smiles. Shikamaru groans, and Sasuke sips his beer.

“We are keenly aware,” he says.

“You have to promise us to not get pregnant too,” Shikamaru says.

“For at least a year,” Sasuke adds. Tenten narrows her eyes.

“Remember: you are a beacon of sanity.” Shikamaru sits up, turning onto his side to look at her directly. Tenten picks a piece of lint off of her skirt. Sasuke and Shikamaru watch her as she doesn’t answer. Tenten sighs. She kind of wants a baby. She looks up, and they both look deeply unimpressed. Like they are her parents and she brought home an annoying boyfriend. “What?” she asks.

“You want a baby.” Sasuke says. Tenten scoffs, about to reply _as if_ , but Shikamaru narrows his eyes. “You look at Sai like you want his baby.”

“We know what that looks like,” Shikamaru says, crossing his legs in the bathtub. Tenten considers telling him that she will make that tub his coffin if he keeps talking about this, but he is going to be someone’s dad. She can’t just wipe him out of existence.

“Do you two hear yourselves?” she asks, “you act like you have been to war or something.”

“Technically, we have been to war,” Shikamaru mouths off. Sasuke would usually find it annoying, but he will make an exception in this case. “Do you want to drive Sai into being trapped in this bathroom?”

“You two aren’t trapped in this bathroom,” Tenten says, “and you volunteered to be parents. Why are you freaking out like this?” she sighs. “Sai would never act this childish in the face of responsibility.”

“That’s because the spectrum of normal human emotions and accompanying behavior was beaten out of him,” Sasuke drawls, sidestepping her question. Shikamaru shrugs in agreement, and sips his beer, which in combination with the gum, leaves a gross taste in his mouth.

Tenten frowns at them. She would normally chew the two of them out for speaking poorly of Sai, but she thinks that maybe, just maybe, they really need this, so she lets it pass.

“You two are going to be fathers, stop feeling sorry for yourselves.” She says.

“You know you and Sai are going to be the legal guardians of our children, right?” Sasuke asks.

“If not, you know now.” Shikamaru sips his beer. Tenten groans.

“Why?” she asks, “don’t you have other friends?” Sasuke and Shikamaru blink lazily at her. It’s not that she wouldn’t step up, it’s just that they didn’t ask first.

“You and Sai are both orphans and could empathize,” Sasuke says.

“Well-adjusted, polite, caring, patient, responsible,” Shikamaru uses his fingers to list off their reasoning.

“We see the way he looks at his cat. I love my baby, but Sai _loves_ that cat.” Sasuke drawls.

“He really does,” Shikamaru says, “more than I could love anything, really. Even Ino and my mom.”

“That’s not true!” Tenten says. Sasuke rolls his eyes.

“Yes, it is—Sai is loving and responsible, he is way better at this stuff than Shikamaru or I,” Sasuke says.

Shikamaru moves his beer to his other hand, so he can keep ticking off the different reasons that Tenten and Sai are the most logical choice.

“You two believe in boundaries, manners and inside voices,” Shikamaru says.

“You can’t trust Naruto to take care of anything that can’t tell him what it needs, and Sakura doesn’t need that kind of responsibility in her life,” Sasuke says.

“Chouji deserves to relax,” Shikamaru says.

“Neji wants a quiet life, and I don’t really trust Hinata’s family,” Sasuke says. Tenten shushes them when it becomes clear that the reasons are countless and are variations on the general theme of her and Sai being the most emotionally available and responsible people they know.

“Look, you two, I think you are going to be good parents. Stop thinking about your premature demise and leave this bathroom.” Tenten rubs her forehead.

“You think?” Sasuke asks. Tenten sighs.

“No negligent parent would put this much thought into their unborn child’s emotional welfare.” Tenten replies. “You’re going to be good at this. I bet I’ll take your sides in most, if not all, of your parenting disputes.”

“Sai won’t,” Sasuke frowns. Tenten rolls her eyes.

“Sai always takes my side, don’t worry about it.” Shikamaru and Sasuke glance at each other.

“And you promise not to get pregnant for another year?” Sasuke asks. Tenten fumes.

“Well, I’m not going to be any time soon!” Tenten replies. “Unlike you two, Sai doesn’t think with his dick.” Even though Tenten kind of wishes he would.

“That is rude,” Shikamaru says.

“And unfair,” Sasuke adds, “and you are evading the question.”

“I am thinking about it, but it won’t happen any time soon.” She hisses. “Happy?”

“Only if you wait a year.” Shikamaru says. They hear another loud crash, and Naruto yelps again while Sakura yells. “That’s it. I need a gun.”

“You’re being dramatic, Shikamaru.” Tenten says. Shikamaru ignores her, and looks at Sasuke.

“Would you put the chidori through my heart?” he asks. Sasuke shakes his head.

“I am not dealing with this alone.” He says. Tenten sighs.

“No one is dying,” she looks up at the door, “you two are just grumpy because it isn’t all about you anymore.”

Tenten stands up and smooths her skirt one last time. “Come out when the two of you are done being pathetic.” She opens the door, make-up wipes in hand.

“Your skirt is still too short!” Sasuke yells. Tenten gives them both the middle finger before stepping out of the washroom. She turns off the light just to spite them, and their loud swearing is worth it. She gets out of the bathroom, and freezes at the sight before her.

Sasuke comes out of the bathroom first, with a smart remark prepared for her. Shikamaru nearly twists his ankle getting out of the tub, but he is close behind Sasuke. They both nearly stumble into Tenten’s back.

They stand behind her, and look at the scene before them.

Sai looks very upset to still be there. He has this horrible purple eyeshadow on, with a ridiculous amount of blush. His mouth is pressed into a line as he looks into a mirror. Ino seems happy with the result, and Tenten wonders if color blindness is a symptom of pregnancy.

“Oh Sai,” Tenten says, moving first. Sai looks at her with a defeated expression, like a beaten dog. “You know, he has dignity,” Tenten says, swatting a Ino and Hinata away.

“I think he likes it,” Ino says.

“Is that the face of someone who is enjoying themselves?” Sasuke asks. She shoots him a venomous look, which he returns.

“You two need to learn to not take advantage of nice people,” Shikamaru puts his can of beer on the table, before tucking his hands into his pockets.

“Why don’t you do this kind of thing to Sasuke and Shikamaru? They got you pregnant, they signed up for this treatment.” Tenten stands in front of Sai, who looks up at her as if she were a savior. Sasuke and Shikamaru look at her as if they had been betrayed, and she shrugs in response.

They both try to retreat to the bathroom, but Ino latches onto them and drags them both into the kitchen, and well, you can’t jostle a pregnant person. Ino grabs Shikamaru’s wrist and holds his hand up to inspect his nails. She sighs. “You need to stop chewing your nails.” She looks back behind her, and picks up a bright green nail polish. “If you don’t annoy me, I promise I will take this off tomorrow.” Ino tries to unscrew the cap with her teeth, before Shikamaru sighs and takes it out of her mouth, opening it for her and holding the bottle. He feels sort of dumb, standing there while Ino paints his nails. But the polish feels cool, and it’s nice to be the singular focus of Ino’s attention. He isn’t jealous of Sai, but watching her flit around his face made Shikamaru feel like they were seventeen again. They had fooled around as teenagers, but when Sai came along she wouldn’t look at him twice. He found Temari, and he thought things with Ino were done, but fate had other plans.

Sasuke chooses immediate submission. He sits down on a chair and holds his hands out to Hinata. She tilts her head at him, before sitting on his lap. “No nail polish?” he asks. She smiles.

“Only if you ask for it.” She says in a sing-song voice.

“So I have to ask for affection?” he scoffs. She shrugs.

“I want your permission,” she turns back, and picks up a sky blue color. Sasuke puts his chin on her shoulder.

“Okay,” he says.

“Just okay?” she smirks. He scowls.

“Please, Hinata, paint my nails and make me feel included.” He says dryly. She smiles at him as she unscrews the cap, holding it in the hand she has him perch his hand on, while she paints his nails. Hinata has a light touch, and each coat is sheer. Despite himself, Sasuke kind of likes it.

Tenten opens the make-up wipes, and takes one out. She puts her pointer under Sai’s chin to tilt his face up. He smiles at her.

“Oh Sai,” she says again, quietly. “You are too patient.” She starts with his forehead, before wiping across his cheeks.

“It feels nice when you take it off,” he says quietly. Tenten brushes his lower lip with her thumb, and he smiles at her. She opens her mouth to reply when they hear a loud cackle.

Naruto, bored with whatever Kiba and Sakura were talking about while they cleaned up his mess, went to the kitchen to see what everyone was doing. Now, he isn’t a judgmental person. But he has spent so much time being the butt of Shikamaru and Sasuke’s jokes that he can’t help but laugh at the fact that they are letting their nails be painted. It is a bonus that they look like they are enjoying it.

Of course, Sai is about to be dragged into his fun, but whatever. Sai is always the collateral damage in everyone’s jokes.

“Wow, I can’t believe that the three of you like having painted nails,” Naruto smirks.

“They are secure in their masculinity, Naruto.” Ino says. Hinata nods.

“I’m secure too,” he drawls, “I just think it’s funny that, out of everyone, these three are the ones who like it.” He sticks his tongue out at Sasuke, who narrows his eyes. “I mean, these three are such pains to literally everyone, and to find out that this is their weakness—I mean, it’s perfect. Refreshing, even.” Naruto chuckles to himself, closing his eyes.

He doesn’t see when Tenten grabs his wrist and drags him into the kitchen. He yelps, because she has a tight hold on him. She pulls him in and sits on Sai’s lap. “Stop being fucking rude, Naruto,” she growls. She reaches for a bubble gum color and hands it to Sai, who opens it for her and holds the bottle while she paints his nails. Sai uses his other hand to wipe off the rest of the make-up, after Sasuke reminds him to.

“But _why_?” Naruto asks. “C’mon, Shikamaru is a hard ass and Sasuke is so rude all the time.”

“You are so mean to Sai!” She retorts. Naruto groans, and Sasuke and Shikamaru consider feeling upset, before deciding to simply enjoy watching Naruto get his comeuppance.

“You are so touchy when it comes to Sai,” Naruto grumbles.

“You are always teasing him!” She says. “If you weren’t so rude and thoughtless, you wouldn’t be here.” Naruto tilts his head and looks at Sai.

“Are you seriously going to let her do this?” he asks. Sai shrugs. He is actually pretty indifferent, but he likes feeling protected.

Sai has only said this to Sakura, and he swore her to secrecy, but the idea of having a baby has been growing on him. Tenten has this way of looking at babies that makes something in his chest constrict, and she is the most protective, level-headed person he knows. The idea of bringing life into the world doesn’t seem so scary when he thinks about doing it with her. He wants to ask, soon. Maybe when they get home.

“Sai!” Naruto stomps his foot. “Answer me!”

“I think pink is your color,” he replies, and Naruto makes a face at him while Tenten giggles.

“You said that to make her laugh.” Naruto pouts.

“So?” Sai replies.

“Sakura and I never make you watch us do this kind of stuff!” Naruto gets flustered when he mentions her name.

“No, you two argue.” Sasuke says. Sai nods.

“All the time.” Sai adds, “it’s impressive, that you like each other so much despite all the things you disagree over.”

“It’s their foreplay,” Shikamaru says, and everyone laughs. Naruto makes a whining noise in response, which gets Sakura’s attention.

She wonders over, and smiles when she sees Naruto’s nails. “I like the color,” she says.

“He chose it because of your hair,” Sai says, and Sasuke nods.

“I was here. I saw it all happen,” Sasuke drawls. Naruto shoots them both a death glare while Sakura blushes, clearly misinterpreting the situation.

Kiba walks over, and looks at all the colors. Sakura, feeling left out, eyes him. “Can I paint your nails?” she asks. Kiba blinks and shrugs.

“Sure.” He replies. Everyone blinks at him. “My sister always did this to me. I don’t really care. Pick a color.” Kiba pulls a chair over and sits on it. He holds his hand out, and Sakura blinks.

“You don’t have a preference?”

“My sister has nail polish remover.” He deadpans. Sakura shrugs and picks a color.

Neither of them will admit this, but Sasuke and Shikamaru like that things have pivoted to a nice, quiet activity. It’s just a bonus that they get to be the center of attention. Sasuke rests his face on Hinata’s shoulder, and she smiles when she feels him begin to doze off. Ino looks up when Shikamaru starts yawning and blinking. When he asks her why she is smiling, she shakes her head and murmurs _no reason_.

There are days where Ino and Hinata feel unsure about the whole parent thing. It seems like a big commitment, and nothing in life is certain. But when the light hits Shikamaru’s face at a particular angle and Sasuke breathes softly, the anxiety melts away. Like they are making something bigger than just the two of them. A little person who will grow up to do the same thing, in the endless repetition of human life and creation.

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am, once again affirming life in the gruesome age of 2020. I am sitting on the next few chapters of Roses, and I am working on another longer fic, but this is too dumb and happy to not post (because that is what I am working on: being dumb and happy). 
> 
> Sai was reading Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, and Ino quoted a passage from the essay “1914: One or Several Wolves?”.
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment! Please forgive any errors-I promise that when I find them, they too make me cross-eyed.


End file.
